Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

Prince of Space

A group of space men from the planet Krankor are led by their leader, Phantom, to invade Earth. But a superhero named Prince of Space (actually a bootblack in disguise) arrives to defeat the spacemen. Although the weapons of the aliens cannot harm the Prince of Space, the Phantom continues to fight, and many plot twists (including capturing a group of elderly scientists) ensue. [1]

Information

Like Shintoho's "Super Giant/Starman" series, this Toei production was released to theaters as a sort of mini-serial with two approximately hour-long episodes. In the US this was edited into a single feature film running less than 90 minutes.

The main writer for the series was Masaru Igami, who worked in various tokusatsu including as the main writer for the first seven Kamen Rider series. His son is fellow tokusatsu and anime writer Toshiki Inoue.

The Episode

Host Segments

Segment One:Bobo finds a suitable spot to go to the toilet, but it turns out to be a wormhole, through which The Widowmaker and a unwilling Satellite of Love enter to chase after him.

Segment Two: Due to the effects of the wormhole, each member of the SOL is moving at a different temporal speed, which makes convesation problematic, but provides ample chances for the theft of Crow's chicken puppet.

The SOL crew wind up in a sylvan glen

Segment Three: Due to the effects of the wormhole, our Mike is replaced with version from alternate universe where he is also a robot. What little respect Crow and Tom have for Mike is lost as they can't take the ventriloquist dummy styled robot seriously.

Segment Four: Due to the effects of the wormhole, Mike and the Bots are transported to a lovely sylvan glen. Tired of all the wackiness, Mike just goes for a walk.

Closing (Segment Five): Everything appears to be back to normal, complete with a visit from Krankor, and they're even back around the Earth, but Pearl and Brain Guy have reason to suspect they've traveled back in time to Ancient Rome...

Pearl and Brain Guy arrive in roman times

Stinger: The Phantom of Krankor's trademark laugh.

Other Notes

Due to Mike being transformed into a robot during one segment, he spends an entire segment of the movie as a robot silhouette, only returning to his normal self after the next commercial break.

Obscure References

"So is this going to be a super violent porn cartoon?"

Crow's riff plays off the fallacy that most Japanese animation (Anime) is full of scenes heavy with gratuitous sex and violence; particularly those from the late 80's and early 90's. Do keep in mind, this was a little before Anime became more mainstream to American audiences.

The music accompanies a bus' loudspeaker announcement at the beginning of "We're All Bozos on This Bus" by The Firesign Theatre .

"Truman Capote sent to fight Krankor!"

Truman Capote, author of "In Cold Blood", "Breakfast at Tiffany's", and other novels. He was heavyset and somewhat effete.

"The aliens have a Young Ones spaceship."

The Young Ones was a British sitcom about a group of students and their surreal misadventures. The remark most likely refers to Vyvyan, the punk rocker of the group, and how the fins on Krankor's ship look kind of like his hair.

Memorable Quotes

[The opening title of the movie shows: Prince of Space.]

Mike: I'm in space already! Damn!

[The children's family is discussing an exploration mission to space while eating dinner.]

Mother: The first cosmic exploration rocket will be launched from this base.

Crow: ...the dining room?

[The TV shows an obvious toy spaceship while a voice blares through the set.]

Spaceship: Attention, people of Earth! Attention, people of Earth! This is Krankor Exploration Force speaking!

Crow: Crank whore?

Spaceship: Do not be alarmed! Stand by for an important message! Stand by for an important message!

Servo [as TV Advert. announcer]: Veterans cannot be turned down!

. . .

Crow [as Mickey]: That's a toy I wouldn't mind having! I like it very much!